Chief Healthcare Executive’s 5 most popular data and technology stories in 2021

The healthcare industry has utilized advances in technology to meet the challenges of public health, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Telemedicine has helped change the way people receive care. Yet hospitals are still struggling to use data for patient care and research.

Health systems across the country have also had to battle cyber attacks that have disrupted operations and even patient care.

Chief Healthcare Executive focuses a great deal of attention on data and technology. Here are the five most-read features in data and technology over the past year. This is the fifth installment in our six-day series celebrating our most popular stories and features of 2021. The series runs through Dec. 31.

5. COVID-19 amplified where data technology could be put to better use

The world remains in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a panel of experts outlined some of the key lessons learned in the pandemic. Telemedicine enabled millions to gain access to healthcare without traveling to a doctor, and technology helped hospitals deal with supply chain issues. But some innovations didn’t match expectations.

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4. Dr. Edmondo Robinson outlines hospital readiness to receive large amounts of patient data

Hospitals and health systems are largely not equipped to handle all the patient data they could receive and turn it into actionable information, explained Robinson, senior vice president and chief digital officer at Moffitt Cancer Center. “The reason why machine learning might be really critical is often it can pull signal from noise that we can't see normally,” he said.

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3. George Van Antwerp on understanding the right data to address health disparities

Using and analyzing data for some subpopulations is still in the early stages and there remain a lot of questions around what is the right data to collect, said Van Antwerp, the  managing director of Deloitte Consulting. “We're still at a point where we're trying to figure out what is the good and bad data,” he said.

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2. Craig Newman: How technology can reduce administrative burden of physicians

Newman, the chief strategy officer at HealthChannels for ScribeAmerica, discussed how technology can be used to help reduce the amount of time and energy providers spend doing administrative tasks. “The last thing we want to do is actually create new sequential processes or new workflows that take the provider away from the patient,” he said.

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1. Recent healthcare data breaches

Hospitals have been battling a rising wave of cyberattacks in recent years. The federal government reports hundreds of healthcare organizations have endured cyber attacks in 2021. Last month, federal authorities warned attackers backed by the Iranian government are targeting healthcare systems and other vital areas. This rundown of recent breaches easily topped the list of CHE’s data and technology stories. Expect cybersecurity to be a major story in 2022 as well.

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Coming tomorrow: Chief Healthcare Executive's most well-read stories on the patient experience